Haunted Playgrounds, Harry Potter, and Karaoke!

On Thursday evening at supper, some of the RAs were sitting at a table in the dining center, talking about ghost stories because that's what one of our activities was going to be that night. We were going on a "Campus Ghost Tour" and tell the students about some of the ghosts that live on campus and stories that have been told for years. While we were on that subject, Andrea (one of the RAs) was telling us about the "Twisted Playground", a memorial that a man built over his daughter's grave after she got hit by a car. He built it so her spirit could play on the playground and now he's known to be this crazy man who watches from his window with a shotgun to scare away any onlookers. We somehow convinced Lindsey to take us out to this place to see if it existed.

Andrea's freaking out!

So we all came back to the dorm, I looked up which street it was on (there was no exact address), and Lindsey took 3 of us girls out in the big ISU 15 passenger van. We found the street and had to decide whether to go left or right. We chose the right direction, and that road lead us to a small gravel road out to the middle of nowhere. As we approached groves of trees, Andrea said she thought it was coming up because she remember reading that there was a grove of trees on each side of the road. We came up a small hill and as we approached the top, another vehicle was approaching the top of the hill from the other side. As we got closer, we could tell that that vehicle was an old rusty truck who was slowing down. It began to turn as if it was going to turn into the driveway of the house coming up. Instead of completing the turn, he just stopped diagonally in the middle of the road, blocking us from going any farther! We all began to freak out and then he slowly moved his truck into the driveway. As Lindsey SPED past because she was freaking out, we got a good look at the old man who appeared to be about 70, but missed the big memorial thing on the opposite side of the road! As we kept driving, we realized that we were in the middle of nowhere with nothing but old dirt roads around us which lead us to nowhere so we had to turn around. Lindsey was like "there is NO way I'm going back there! I'm gonna puke!" We all finally convinced her to turn around because we wanted to see the memorial and take pictures... plus we had to get back to work somehow! We drove back, I took pictures, Andrea videotaped, Lindsey reached for her phone (in case we needed to call 911?), and Christy laughed. The man was still outside, getting something from the back of his truck with his dog, and we all got a quick glimpse of "The Twisted Playground" as Lindsey was freaking out, driving so fast past the memorial that we only got to see it for a few seconds. We made it safely back to camp, but it was quite the adventure!

The best picture I got of the gate to the Twisted Playground

On the Ghost Tour!

Later that night, we went on the "Iowa State Ghost Tour", which some of the students thought was pretty lame because every time after we told a ghost story, they all had so many questions because they didn't see the "logic" in the ghost story! But then we came back and approached our dorm, we sat them outside and told them about "The Twisted Playground" and our little adventure that we went on earlier that day. They all listened so intently, and when we were done telling the story, it was completely silent. Then we told them we were going to take them out there right now... and half of them freaked and the other half said "AWESOME!" We obviously didn't take them out there, but we did have to show them the video to prove to them that we weren't lying.

"Show me how excited you are for Harry Potter!!!"

Friday was "Harry Potter Day!" For our afternoon activities, we had the students make magic wands and create their own magic spells. Then we quickly went to dinner, and we were off to the new (and final) Harry Potter movie! We took two school buses over to the theater and stood in the long line with out 40-some students for about 45 minutes before we were seated. As we went into the theater and handed all of our tickets out to our students, we realized we had about 10 extra tickets... that's about $100! So we tried giving them away, but everyone had either seen the movie, or had reserved their tickets ahead of time. Then we headed over to Subway and gave a couple away and we both texted a bunch of our friends. Christy gave 3 away to her friends and I gave 2 away to my friend Claire and her friend, Steven. Claire had already seen the premiere the night before, but who wouldn't take a free ticket to Harry Potter?! Plus it was a good reason to get to see her again. The movie was awesome, in case you're wondering. I'm a little sad that they're over now, though.

In line for the movie!

Andrea trying to teach me how to "shuffle"

Dani

Brennan AKA Harry Potter

Yesterday was a busy day! It was the last day for the Exploration students of Week 1. I had to say goodbye to two of my students, Tyler and Keegan. Two of my favorites out of everyone here at camp. I really wish that they would have been here for the 3 week program, but I'm very glad that I got the chance to meet them. The Exploration students had an "Open House" where their parents came to their classrooms and got to see their final projects and what they had been working on and learning all week. Then they came back to the dorm to check out. Except for Keegan, because he was a commuter. He attends class and participates in our activities but he doesn't live in the dorms with us because his grandparents live in Ames. So I invited him to stay for the rest of Saturday afternoon and evening to participate in a couple more activities.

So yesterday afternoon, we had "Cupcake Wars", which I think it on the Food Network channel? We broke into 4 teams and each team had a recipe... Coca-Cola cupcakes, Cheesecake cupcakes, Oreo cupcakes, and S'more Cupcakes. We had fun baking all afternoon and then we invited 3 judges to judge all 4 cupcakes.

My group's Oreo Cupcakes

My group!

Andrea and Lindsey

The Judges!

 After Cupcake Wars, most of the students and most of the RAs went to the Aquatic Center in Ames to hang out for a few hours. A few of us stayed to decorate the den for "Karaoke Night!" When the students came back, the "Karaoke Lounge" was all decked out and looked amazing. Lindsey made her famous smoothies, we hired a DJ who came and hosted our Karaoke party, and a lot of students and RAs participated! It was my favorite activity thus far. Andrea, Christy, and I sang "Baby" by Justin Bieber and then later we sang "Respect" by Aretha Franklin, which we found out that we don't know as well as we thought we did. It was such a fun night! Keegan sang a couple songs, and right before he sang his last song, he had "something to say to everyone." He thanked us all for a great time and was glad he got to meet everyone. It was so cute!

Today is going to be another busy day. Plus I'm the RA of the Day again so that doesn't help. We're getting 15 more students today, then have a full night of activities planned!